1 year performance video(aka samHsiehUpdate)

About 1 year performance video

1 year performance video continues MTAA's series of
Updates.
Our Updates resound seminal performance art from the 60s and
70s in part by replacing human processes with computer processes.
For example, is there meaning in replacing
On Kawara's zen-like
devotion to his date paintings with an automated script which
functions in a similar way?

First,
we've taken the act of living in a cell and transformed it into images
of ourselves living in a cell. These video clips are edited dynamically
at runtime so that every viewer sees a slightly different cut. The clips
are organized according to the clock: if you access the piece in the morning, you
see us doing morning things; if you access late at night, you see us sleeping.

Second, we've transferred the onus of a 1 year commitment
to the work from the artist to the viewer. The piece
will be realized fully only when a viewer runs it for
one year.
As M.River put it:

"In the work, we mimic endurance without doing the labor.
We also know the audience can just close the browser
and walk away. No one needs to suffer on this one.
The failure is built-in at the front end."

Will a viewer ever complete the work? It's doubtful.

Though the work stands fully on its own, another dimension is added when
it's viewed in dialogue with the work that inspired it. The choices
made in updating the work we believe speaks to how our society, culture,
and the creative process has changed since the original was created.

1 year performance video (aka samHsiehUpdate)
by MTAA. A 2004 commission of
New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.,
(aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made
possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation. Video bandwidth provided through the generous support of The New Media Program, University of Maine.